1. Technical Field
This application relates to a surgical stapling apparatus, and more particularly, to a reloadable, multi-fire endoscopic surgical stapling apparatus for sequentially applying a plurality of surgical fasteners to body tissue and incising fastened tissue.
2. Background of Related Art
Surgical devices wherein tissue is first grasped or clamped between opposing jaw structure and is then joined by surgical fasteners are well known in the art. In some instruments, a knife is provided to cut the tissue which has been joined by the fasteners. The fasteners are typically in the form of surgical staples, although two part polymeric fasteners can also be utilized.
Instruments for this purpose can include two elongated members which are respectively used to capture or clamp tissue. Typically, one of the members carries a staple cartridge which houses a plurality of staples arranged in at least two lateral rows while the other member has an anvil that defines a surface for forming the staple legs as the staples are driven from the staple cartridge. Generally, the stapling operation is effected by cam bars that travel longitudinally through the staple cartridge, with the cam bars acting upon staple pushers to sequentially eject the staples from the staple cartridge. A knife can travel between the staple rows to longitudinally cut and/or open the stapled tissue between the rows of staples.
In endoscopic or laparoscopic procedures, surgery is performed through a small incision or through a narrow cannula inserted through small entrance wounds or openings in the skin. In order to address the specific needs of endoscopic and/or laparoscopic surgical procedures, endoscopic surgical stapling devices have been developed.
Current endoscopic stapling devices are configured to operate with single use loading units (“SULU's”) or disposable staple cartridges that are configured as single-use, or single-fire components. As such, during a normal operation, a surgeon may be required to utilize several SULU's or cartridges to perform a single endoscopic surgical procedure, e.g., where a plurality of firings is required. For each subsequent firing, the surgeon must remove the stapling device from the internal surgical site in order to replace the spent component(s) with new component(s). This repeated removal and manual reloading of the stapling device during the course of a single procedure increases the time, complexity, and overall costs associated with the endoscopic surgical procedure.
It would therefore be beneficial to provide a surgical stapling device and corresponding loading unit that is configured for multiple-firings, thus obviating the need to withdraw the device from the internal surgical site in order to manually reload the device for subsequent firings.